


Through the Eyes of Children

by spikefallsteve (hypersugarroxy)



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Big Brother Sans, Fluff, Font family, Gen, baby bones, maybe not the most coherent fluff but fluff, not the AU or w/e but just child versions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-02
Updated: 2016-05-02
Packaged: 2018-06-05 20:07:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6721483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hypersugarroxy/pseuds/spikefallsteve
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For Gaster, it was a simple, quiet evening out with his children. For the boys, it was a night of magic and discovery.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Through the Eyes of Children

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Moira_chan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moira_chan/gifts).



> for the exchange. hope you like it ^^
> 
> also, there's an illustration: http://tornadoshyren.tumblr.com/post/143748098261/sans-had-always-been-in-love-with-the-rocks-and

“and then you touch ‘em like this,” Sans reached out his small fingers and stroked the echo flower’s petals, provoking speech possibly long forgotten.

“ _They’re shining brightly tonight, aren’t they?_ ”

Sans looked excitedly at his two-year-old brother, whose little hands were clapped together in amazement, sockets wide and entranced. Sans turned a large grin to their father, standing off to the side, letting his five-year-old take the reins and show off everything Waterfall had to offer.

“it’s really cool, huh, pap? here, you try now.”

Papyrus threw his head back and forth, trying to pick a different flower. He dashed over to one along the wall, and pet it excitedly.

“ _Where is this? Was I here already? How do I get out?_ ” it said in a quietly panicked tone. Both children’s faces dropped. Sans stared at it blankly, Papyrus started shaking a little.

“[ALRIGHT, MAYBE THAT’S ENOUGH ECHOING],” their father said, stepping in to stop the boys’ tears before they began. He ushered the children away from it and snapped his fingers, giving it something new to repeat.

Sans led Papyrus out of the glittering room by the hand, their father following along just close enough to keep them in his sight. Sans had been the one most excited to go to Waterfall, to go “stargazing”, to show off all the neat things that he knew about that his little brother didn’t. He finally had someone around not weary of the sights of the Underground - Gaster knew he should at least _try_ to feign interest, but as years wore on, no closer to a solution and getting less and less sleep by the week, he just couldn’t make it happen as often anymore.

But Papyrus was young, sights were still new, everything was interesting to him. It made both his father and his brother smile. Sans could share his excitement and knowledge with someone genuinely enthralled by it, by how beautiful their surroundings could be and how amazing his big brother was. Gaster could watch and vicariously experience the wonder and energy through them both, same as he could when he was showing the caverns and environments to two-year-old Sans, bringing him back to finding all these things for the first time himself, so many years ago.

“watch out, it’s slippery,” Sans said, gripping Papyrus’s hand tighter and leading him along a slick narrow path.

“WAT OW, IS SLIPPY!” Papyrus called back to Gaster, ducked under silty vines as he tried to keep up with the spry young boys.

Every tiny thing in their path was an experience. Rushing water was something to be stared at in awe as opposed to rushed past so the groceries didn’t get soaked with spray. Everyone they met was someone to greet with enthusiasm. Even pebbles: every few steps along one of the rooms Papyrus would crouch and pick up tiny fistfulls of fallen rock and stuff them in his pocket, to the point that even Sans, ever patient with the toddler, began to pull him away from it.

Gaster, tired as he was, loved every second of this. He loved the memories it made and the memories it brought back. He loved watching the boys bonding and getting excited together. He loved the stillness and relatively low stress he was able to enjoy. As long as he could still sense them around him, he was at peace for the first time in a while. But he was more than happy to back off the two and let them explore.

“you work these,” Sans told Papyrus in a very darkened area, a path lined with large mushrooms “like the echos, you touch em.” He demonstrated and the bioluminescence lit the path a few meters ahead of them, just enough to see the next one. Papyrus bounded down the path, almost disappearing from sight to slap his little hand against the next cap. It produced the same result, though Papyrus’s face could’ve illuminated the room just as easily. Sans grinned down at Papyrus proudly and rubbed his head, eliciting giggles from the latter. He looked up at Gaster, approaching the two much more slowly, still giving them space, and smiled at him just as broadly. Gaster obliged him tiredly. Papyrus scuttled over to Gaster and grabbed his hand.

“GETA NEXT ONE, DADDY!” the baby bone insisted.

“[I…]” Gaster started. Papyrus tugged on his arm and led him down the rapidly dimming path, lit again by Sans behind them as they came to a stop in front of the next one. Papyrus looked up at his father expectantly. Gaster sighed softly. He was already there and it was easy enough, and it was hard to say no to that face, he would’ve caved in eventually if Papyrus was persistent enough (which he always was).

He touched the mushroom lightly and lit the way. Papyrus let go of Gaster’s hand and ran off toward the next one. Gaster watched Sans come up from behind and chase after Papyrus before strolling along behind, quietly but highly amused.

There were some murals in the next room that distracted the children long enough for their father (cheating a tad once they were out of his line of sight) to catch up. They depicted the original settlement of Home, long ago. Neither of them were quite ready for school (though Sans would be within the year), so Gaster highly doubted they knew exactly what was going on in the pictures. They just thought they were pretty. As unhappy a time Gaster knew it must’ve been, he couldn’t help but appreciate it the same way. Though, truth be told, neither art nor history were things that kept his interest very long.

Apparently it didn’t keep Papyrus’s attention long either, since shortly after he took off toward the next area. Gaster tapped Sans on the shoulder and they followed him.

They passed a statue sitting under a hole in the rock. Rain fell through the hole, more slowly than anywhere else in the area. Not the greatest placement for the statue; even though Gaster knew what it was _supposed_ to be, the features were so worn down by decades of water falling on it. Papyrus was instantly drawn to it, stepped up on its foot and started hanging from the arm. Gaster pulled him down.

“[YOU CAN’T PLAY ON THE MONUMENT, PAPYRUS, IT’S DISRESPECTFUL.]” He hoped at least his tone would get across that it was wrong if his words were too big for his toddler. Being unable to swing on it diminished Papyrus‘s interest in it as quickly as it showed up. He started hopping in the puddles along the path. Gaster looked the statue, mulling over an idea.

“[BOYS.]” He didn’t even check if he had their attention before taking off his cloak and tossing it over the figure. Once rain stopped hitting it, a tune began to play. If he didn’t have their attention, he did now, as they came over and stared at it.

“[ISN’T THAT NEAT?]”

“howsit do that?” Sans asked curiously.

Gaster shrugged. He really had no idea. The statue had been eroding away since before he were a baby bone himself. Its inner mechanics were as much a mystery to him as Sans.

“[MAGIC.]” In all honesty that was probably the correct answer. It satisfied Sans, anyway. He started off toward the next door. Papyrus was utterly enthralled by the music even as it faded when Gaster picked up his cloak and tucked the soggy thing under his arm.

Sans was getting slightly ahead of them. He wasn’t in the next room, finally pushing Gaster to pick up his pace a little. Not that there was any actual danger in Waterfall, but he got a little anxious when he couldn’t see them when they were so far from home. He could still hear him though, and when he crossed the next threshold right after Papyrus, Sans was waiting impatiently in the large cavern, batting an echo flower’s blossom between his hands.

“ _What did you - What did you - What did you_ -”

“[PLEASE STOP THAT.]”

“this is the big room! we’re almost there!”

“[OKAY, BUT STOP RUNNING OFF.]”

“c’mon, pap,” Sans said, taking Papyrus’s hand again and leading him over toward a small gap in the path, surrounded with water on all sides. Sans jumped over it with ease; Papyrus, not to be outdone even with far shorter legs, went to copy the move. Gaster rushed up behind them and caught Papyrus in midair, then stepped over it himself. Papyrus didn’t look too happy about being interrupted, and “retaliated” by leaping over a shallow, narrow puddle instead. He looked back at Gaster proudly; Gaster gave him a pat or so on the head before following Sans through a side path.

Gaster wondered how Sans knew where they were going; he was far too young to be exploring the Waterfall on his own, and couldn’t possibly remember the room they were looking for...could he? Maybe he was just winging it, having confidence in his ability (and that of his father, should his fail him) to get them all home after. Whatever it was, he had no direction, unless his memory was far better than he let on, and in every room he would turn in a circle while looking up before proceeding, so he at least thought he’d know it when he saw it.

Nearly ten minutes passed of Sans doing that pattern. Papyrus started getting fussy and Gaster carried him part of the way, before deciding two minutes later he wanted to get down and run behind Sans some more. Gaster started to get weary himself, and told himself ten more minutes before he’d take over the lead, if Sans didn’t find it first. Sans kept dragging them around the long way, though Gaster knew he was on the right track. Call it the scenic route; exploration was the whole point of this excursion.

Finally things started looking familiar to Sans. He stopped his enter-spin-exit routine and took off, Papyrus in hot pursuit, Gaster calling after them both. Down a tunnel and over a land bridge before tearing through a hanging curtain of reeds into a dead end cavern. Gaster lost them twice but caught up fairly quickly, out of breath but knowing exactly where they were. He followed them in.

It was dimly lit as the rest of the region, small amounts of starlike rocks lining the walls, spotting the ground with dim aqua lights. But the rocks’ luminescence drew the eye upward, and one would notice this area had a higher ceiling than most. The rocks moved higher and higher, farther away, and stayed as uniform above as below, but there were more of them here than anywhere else they’d be. And a higher concentration meant more…”constellations”.

Sans’s face lit up brighter than any stone in the wall. This was it, where he wanted to be. He instantly started making himself at home, Papyrus following behind.

The ground was squishy, not quite as marshy as most of the off-path areas, but enough to sink into uncomfortably. Still, Sans wanted to look at these rocks. And Papyrus wanted to do what Sans wanted to do. The two sat down and stared at their father beckoningly. He smiled at them, and as little as he wanted to settle into the wetland, he joined them, sitting on Papyrus’s left and looking up at the ceiling.

“SHOW TH’ PIC’URES, SAS!” Papyrus yelled at the ceiling.

“ok, ok.” Sans laid on his back and pointed above them. “there’s the dogs, and those’re a story about an old fight b’tween two boss monsters over a tree on the surface.”

Every couple of constellations Gaster looked over at the boys. He wasn’t entirely convinced either of them had blinked since laying down. Sans had always been in love with the rocks, and really the concept of stars in general. Any time spent blinking was time that could’ve been spent absorbing the sight above him. Papyrus wasn’t exactly bored with it, but he clearly didn’t find the stars themselves all that interesting. Rather, the stories behind the pictures and the ecstatic tone his brother had while telling them drew him in.

“there’s the cross, those six there.”

Most didn’t have much of a tale.

Gaster started tuning out the tales after a while. He’d heard them all. Heck, he’d told them all before, how else would Sans be repeating them back? He was more or less content to listen to the enraptured tone of voice coming out of the kids, rather than the actual meat of the discussion, and found himself getting lost in the constellations, the aqua lights dotting his vision, relaxing him totally.

Papyrus didn’t really get it. It wasn’t the first time he’d technically heard the stories, but it was the first he’d remember, and he couldn’t really say he understood what was worth getting worked up about them. But this made Sans excited, and that alone got him hyped for this excursion. Still, his attention span wasn’t all that long, and eventually he decided new echo flowers were more interesting.

Sans never noticed losing either party member. He kept pointing, tracing the stones’ patterns, muttering their names to himself as he became sleepier. The little lights above him started dancing and his bony lids just kept getting heavier and heavier.

Echo flowers only kept Papyrus’s attention so long without anyone to share them with. He toddled his way back between his father and brother and poked Sans in the cheek.

“stop, papyrus.”

“YOU SLEEPY,” he said quietly.

“uh-huh. aren’t you?”

Papyrus opened his mouth to retort loudly, of course not! A rogue yawn betrayed him.

“that’s what i thought.” Sans said with a chuckle.

Papyrus scooted on his knees through the marshy grass and curled up under Sans’s arm, then wrapped around him.

“[OK, DON’T GET TOO COMFORTABLE, YOU TWO.]” Gaster sat up and looked at his kids. “[READY TO GO HOME, I TAKE IT?]”

Sans rolled over in the grass, back turned to the other two. “no. just sleep.”

“[SANS, WE CAN’T SLEEP HERE.]”

“just a bit longer?”

Gaster had a feeling he knew where this was going but he relented, getting up to wait in the doorway, lest he start to doze himself.

Sans turned his tired eyes upward once again. Once he had settled, it didn’t take long for Papyrus, snuggled contently against Sans, to fall soundly asleep. Sans let the lights resume their waltz in front of his blurring vision as he followed suit.

Gaster left them go a few more minutes before he tried to move them, not really wanting to rouse them so soon after they’d fallen asleep. They looked peaceful. He even let himself entertain the thought of joining them while he waited. He was tired himself, and he didn’t want to really go all the way back home carrying them both. Little Papyrus, maybe, but Sans was definitely getting too big for this.

He could let it slide once. However much it would break his back. He scooped up the tired little bones and placed each on a hip. He was exhausted.

Well...he contemplated his alternative. Not like he hadn’t done it once already tonight. No harm in it, he supposed. They weren’t going to miss the walk back, anyway, snoozing like they were.

“[HOLD ON TIGHT, BOYS.]” he whispered, ready to be home already. It had been a full evening for everyone. “[DADDY KNOWS A SHORTCUT.]”


End file.
